#sicilian

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[Ask Translation]: Hello! Love this blog! It's strange to see Tumblr text posts in a language that only my grandparents spoke. Can I ask you how you've created it? I am Sicilian but I can't speak much Sicilian.

Hello! First off, this is a passion project of mine and I truly did not expect to generate much of a following at all which is why I have no proper FAQ or anything (however definitely planning on making one soon). But! A little bit about me to put the rest of this in context:

I am not a native speaker of Sicilian – I myself am Sicilian and grew up hearing the language spoken around me but never learned to speak myself

I live in the United States – while I still have family in Sicily I by no means grew up in the region

I am currently in college studying Linguistics – when I say this is just a passion project I mean it! Although I do hope to do official work with Sicilian someday, I am by no means an expert on the subject and my translations (like all translations) do have bias in the way I present them

Keeping that in mind, here’s my general process for creating my posts/writing and learning Sicilian:

1. Dictionaries and Grammars

For anyone that isn’t aware, Sicilian is NOT a standardized language, meaning that there is no “official” dictionary, grammar, or orthography system for the language. Despite this, Sicilian has had a rather vibrant literary tradition spanning a couple centuries, even into the modern day. For my purposes, I opt for older dictionaries and grammars due to the influence Italian has had since Italy's unification in 1860. Many of these were created by early pioneers of Ethnology, Linguistics, and Anthropology, often without input from one another. Spelling is not standardized, and there are little to no pronunciation guides, but they are an extremely rich source for pre-Italicised Sicilian. Below are the ones I most commonly use:

Napizia - A wonderful general purpose site, Napizia offers everything from verb conjugation to general history. It also houses a fully digitized version of Antonio Traina’s Nuovo Vocabolario Siciliano-Italiano (1868), a bilingual Sicilian-Italian dictionary. This book can also be found here on Internet Archive, but I find Napizia’s quick search function to be especially helpful.

Biundi - Also available on Internet Archive is Giuseppe Biundi’s Vocabolario Manuale Completo Siciliano-Italiano (1851). It contains a (very) brief grammar, an abridged dictionary (vocabolario manuale) for quick reference, a list of common names, and “Geographic Dictionary” with, “city, river, village and other noteworthy places” of Sicily.

Pitrè - Starting on page CL, Giuseppe Pitrè’s Fiabe, novelle e racconti popolari siciliani Vul. I (1871) provides a wonderfully in-depth grammar of Sicilian. Honestly, I would generally recommend all of his work (catalog here, all free to download) for its depth, descriptiveness, and true respect for the culture in a time where none of those were a guarantee in his field. 

Vocabolario Storico-Etimologico del Siciliano - while I sadly am unable to find a digital copy, Alberto Varvaro’s Vocabolario Storico-Etimologico del Siciliano (2014) provides a village-by-village dialect index, marking each word in its catalogue with either the specific village or region that the word is used in. For dialectology purposes this book is amazing, as, for reference, my family’s village is one of those indexed in this book, and it has a population of less than 3,000. There are 2 libraries in Sicily where this book is available, Biblioteca Diocesana (Caltanissetta), and Biblioteca Popolare Pax (Monreale). There are also a number of libraries across North America that carry the title, which can be found here.

2. Arts, Culture, and Other Resources

Obviously, there are times where dictionaries from the mid-19th century may not have the things I’m looking for when trying to translate Tumblr-style text posts. When in doubt, these are the places I look for casual, fluid, and artistic expression in Sicilian. 

Pitrè - Starting off with Giuseppe Pitrè again, I would like to point out both the Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti Popolari Siciliani (4 Volumes) and the Proverbi Siciliani (4 Volumes) collections. These collected volumes, compiled from decades of fieldwork and published with notes by Pitrè himself are transcribed folktales told to Pitrè by Sicilians from across the island in the 19th century. The speech is casual, with plenty of humor and crudeness thrown in. There was recently an English translation published for Fiabe, Novelle e Racconti Popolari Siciliani (Volume 1, Volume 2 is not available digitally sadly) that makes cross referencing some of the Sicilian easier, as both collections are written entirely in Sicilian as they were told to Pitrè, with little to no translation.

Arba Sicula - A wonderful foundation run by wonderful people, Arba Sicula is a non-profit international organization that promotes the language and culture of Sicily. They publish textbooks for Sicilian (with DVDs!), host the works of several notable poets, use Napizia’s translation services, and highlight modern artists such as Alessio Patti. They publish an annual Sicilian/English journal, as well as a biannual newsletter detailing their work. 

Cademia Siciliana - Providing a standard orthographic system (more about that in pt. 3), an internal library, UNESCO translations, and a calendar, Cademia Sciliana is a newer organization promoting the Sicilian language both in the United States and Italy. Much of their current work revolves around making Sicilian a digitally available language, and recently they helped make Sicilian a supported browser language with FireFox!

Amanda Pascali - An up-and-coming bilingual Sicilian/English singer-songwriter, Pascali pioneered the first comprehensive project to translate and revitalize Sicilian folk songs. Currently an artist in residence with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress conducting research in ethnomusicology and Italian Studies, meaning that not only is her work beautiful to listen to, but thoroughly researched and accurately translated.

Movies - Linked are some films in Sicilian, some may have Italian/English dialogue or captions available. There is also the Cinema Sicilianu, a film festival in Australia celebrating contemporary cinema from Sicily and the global Sicilian diaspora. While there isn’t much Sicilian-only media, both links are great starting points for pronunciation and casual speech styles.

3. My Style

This section will be about how I go about creating my posts in Sicilian since, as I mentioned previously, Sicilian is not standardized and so much is left up to the individual.

Orthography – for the most part I stick to the orthographic standard provided by the Cademia Sciliana. The ways I differ are as follows: 

Marking All Retroflex Consonants - In Sicilian there are many retroflex consonants, the most common of which is /ɖ/ written as ḍḍ. However, there are a number of retroflex consonants that only occur in the digraphs/trigraphs tr, str, dr, and sdr where each letter is pronounced in retroflex form. Cademia Siciliana argues that these sequences require no additional marking due to their “well-know” nature, but, both due to the language decline and my own confusion as a heritage speaker learning pronunciation, I choose to explicitly mark them. I use the same accent mark as with /ɖ/ and mark only the last consonant in the sequence resulting in tṛ, stṛ, dṛ, and sdṛ which are pronounced as /ʈɽ/, /ʂːɽ/, /ɖɽ/, and /ʐːɽ/ respectively. 

The Ci/Ci Problem - In Sicilian there are a number of words that are loaned from both Latin and Italian. In Latin loan words the digraph ci is pronounced as /ʃ/ while in Italian loanwords they are pronounced as /tʃ/. As the actual origin of these loanwords is not readily apparent to most people, I have chosen to give /ʃ/ its own character, ç, still followed by i to maintain legibility. 

Rare Phonemes - There are some phonemes that are too rare in Sicilian to be included in the orthography proposed by Cademia Siciliana. One such phoneme is /χ/ found in the word harbia, meaning sore throat. I personally am in favor of descriptivist methods, and so when encountering rarer phonemes such as these I borrow characters from related languages so that readers know there is a difference in pronunciation. Using harbia as an example, I would borrow the Maltese letter ħ, creating ħarbia, as Maltese is both closely related to Sicilian and the letter ħ is used directly to represent the phoneme /χ/.

Contractions - When possible I write the contracted form of words to mimic casual speech as it is used on Tumblr. In Sicilian the circumflex accent is used for contractions: di lu = dû, a lu = ô, pi la = pâ, nta li = ntî, aju a = hê, ai a = hâ, avi a = avâ, avemu a = amâ, aviti a = atâ, etc.

Dialects – I try not to favor any particular dialect of Sicilian when creating these posts, and may intentionally mix dialects together. I do not wish to promote any one dialect or way of speaking as “better” or “more standard” than any other, especially as a non-native speaker.

Uncertainty – Because there is no “true” way to write in Sicilian, there are plenty of places where I am uncertain in my translations due to gaps in source materials, complex sentence structure, and/or metaphorical language. I always welcome feedback, and at times may rely on machine translation services (Google) to attempt to fill in those gaps.

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He picked up the doll and placed her directly in front of him on his horse. And the whole journey long he kept saying, “If the doll is so beautiful, imagine the maiden who owns her! If the doll is so beautiful, imagine the maiden who owns her!”

When he came to his palace, what did he do? He went right to his room and had an opening made in the wall to serve as a window-niche for the doll. Then he just gazed upon her all around the clock, twenty-four hours a day, repeating to himself, “If the doll is so beautiful, imagine the owner!”

Finally this young man lost all interest in seeing anyone but the doll. He was overcome by such a melancholy that his father had to summon a group of doctors. When the doctors came, they looked at him and said, “Your Majesty, we don’t have the faintest idea what this illness could be, but it’s evident that he’s obsessed with this doll.”

The king went to see his son, but all the young man could do was to gaze at the doll and repeat, “If the doll is so beautiful, imagine the maiden who owns her!” So the doctors came and went, and the prince, gulping painful breaths and sighs, just kept repeating, “If the doll is so beautiful, imagine the maiden who owns her!”

By now the king was really at his wits’ end. He rang the bell summoning his Grand Council, and cried out,

“Do you see what a sorry state my son is in? He has no fever, no headaches, but he is wasting away day by day, and my kingdom will be left for someone else to enjoy. I need your advice!”

“Your Majesty, why are you so worried? Don’t you remember that girl, the one who rescued the King of Spain’s daughter and then went on to cure another princess? Send for this maiden at once–and if her father won’t release her, threaten him with war.” 

So the king ordered his ambassadors to deliver this threatening message: “You must send us your daughter, otherwise there will be war.” But just as the ambassadors had conveyed the message, the princess herself entered the room, and when she saw the king at a loss, she asked him, “What’s troubling you?”

“Nothing, my child. It’s just that another envoy has arrived, and now another king wants you. It seems that I can no longer have you at my beck and call.”

“There’s no problem in sending me, your Majesty. I’ll be back before you know it.”

So the princess embarked with her entourage, came to this new kingdom, and went to see the prince. She found him swallowing sigh after sigh and repeating, “Oh! If the doll is so beautiful, imagine the maiden who owns her!”

“Well, you called me just in the nick of time,” she said to the king. “Give me one week, and have unguents and food brought to me each day, and after a week you’ll find him either alive and well, or dead and gone”

Once she was locked in with the prince, she paid close attention to what he was saying. At first she could not understand his words because he was so feeble and on the brink of death. But when she finally heard what he was murmuring and saw the doll, she burst out, “Oh, you scoundrel! You’re the one who stole my doll! I’ll see that you get what you deserve!”

When the prince heard these words, he revived and said, “Are you the doll’s mistress?”

“Yes, it is me!”

Well, you can imagine how that prince came back to life. She began feeding him broth and soon had him fully restored to life. When he was feeling better, she asked, “Now tell me how you got this doll?” and the prince told her the whole story. In less than a week the prince was himself again, and soon it was announced that he and the maiden would wed.

The king, beside himself with joy at his son’s recovery, began writing letters. The first one was to the King of Spain, telling him that the girl finally found her doll; the second was to the king who was her father, telling him that his daughter had been found; and the third was to the king whose daughter she had made well again. Then all of these monarchs came together and held festivities on a grand scale, and the prince took the princess as his wife, and they lived in blessed peace.”

“Did you enjoy this story, pretty Mamma”?

“Oh yes, very much.”

“Good. But don’t forget, you must never go with the old woman.”

After the third tale was done, the servant came and announced: “My lady, my lady, the master has returned!”

“Really?” said the lady. “Well then, listen, my parrot, I’m going to have a new cage made for you.”

The master arrived, opened all the windows, and embraced his wife. Dinner time came, and they placed the parrot in the middle of the table. At the high point of the meal, the parrot sprayed some soup right into the master’s eyes. When the master reached up and covered his burning eyes with his hands, the parrot seized him by the throat, strangled him, and flew away. 

Once the bird reached a valley, it landed on the ground and said, “Parrot I am, and man I shall become!” All at once the bird turned back into the notary her was, all neatly combed and dressed, and went walking along the Corso, where he met the gentle man, who had made the bet with him. 

“Did you hear the news?” the gentleman asked. “That poor lady’s husband is dead. A parrot strangled him!”

“Really? Poor, poor thing!” said the notary, and they went their separate ways with no mention of their wager. 

The notary learned that the lady had a mother, and so he went to her and asked for her daughter’s hand in marriage. There was maybe yes and maybe no, and some hemming and hawing, but in the end the mother said yes. So the notary and the woman were married. 

That night, the notary asked the lady, “Now tell me, who killed your husband?”

“A parrot”

“And what about this parrot? Tell me the whole story.”

And so the woman told him the whole story up to the point where the parrot sprayed hot soup into the master’s eyes and flew away. 

“That’s exactly right!” said the notary. “Because that parrot was none other than myself!”

“You? I can’t believe it!”

“Yes it was me, and it was all for your sake that I had myself turned into a parrot!”

The next morning the notary went to visit the gentleman and collected his four hundred gold pieces, and he enjoyed them together with his wife.

–Told by Agatuzza Messia at Palermo

Si pigghia sta pupa e si la metti avanti cavallu. « È beḍḍa sta pupa! – dicia stṛata stṛata – cunsiddirati la patṛuna! » e caminava dicennu:  « È beḍḍa sta pupa! cunsiddirati la patṛuna! » Junci a palzzu, e chi fa? va nnâ sò cammara; cci fa fari un ‘ngastu ‘ntô muru, ‘na vitṛina, e si metti a talialla vintiquattr’uri lu jornu diccenu semprii: « È beḍḍa la pupa! cunsiddirati la patṛuna! » 

Janu ca stu picciottu ‘un vosi vidiri cchiù a nuḍḍu, e si pigghiau di tanta malancunia ca sò patṛi appi a chiamari Giunta di medici. Vennu li medici, l’osservanu: – « Maistà, nnà tṛi ‘un nni sapemu nenti di sta malatia; viditi chi havi cu ssa pupa. »

 Lu Re java nni lu figghiu: lu figghiu jisava l’occhi nni la pupa: – « Ih! È beḍḍa la pupa! cunsiddirati la patṛuna! » Vinevanu li medici, e comu vinevanu si nni javanu. Stu picciottu assittatu a taliari e diri sempri: – « Ih! È beḍḍa la pupa! cunsiddirati la patṛuna! » E sempri si sucava, e suspirava. Lu Re quannu si vitti persu, tuccò campana di Cunsigghiu. – « Viditi mè figghiu com’è ridduttu Iḍḍu ‘un havi frevi, iḍḍu ‘un havi botta ‘n testa, ma iḍḍu mi stà squagghiannu, e la mè Riami si l'havi a guariri àutru!… Datini cunsigghiu! » 

– « Maistà, vi cunfunnìstivu? ‘Un cc’è sta picciotta ch’ ha fattu tṛuvari â figghia dû Re di Spagna, e ha gualutu a n’àutra Riggineḍḍa? Mannati a pigghiari a chissa. Si sò patri ‘un vi la duna, ‘ntimàticci la guerra. »

Lu re manna li ‘Mmasciaturi: o chi cci mannava sta figghia cû bonu, o cû reu. Mentṛi cc’eranu li ‘Mmasciaturi davanti lu Re di Spagna, tṛasi la figghia, chiḍḍa ch’avia fattu ḍḍi spirtizzi; e lu tṛova cunfusu. – « Chi aviti, Maistà? » 

– « Nenti, figghia mia; vinni ‘n’àutṛa cuguintura; ti vole n’àutṛu re. Voli diri ca io ‘un pozzu essiri cchiù patṛuni di tia! » 

– « Nenti, Maistà; lassatimi jiri, ca ‘nta pocu tempu tornu. »

Si ‘mmarca câ sò Sirvitù, e si nni va pû sò bon viaggiu. Comu chista tṛasi e vidi ô Riuzzu chi s’agghiuttia dicennu sempri: – « Ih! È beḍḍa la pupa! cunsiddirati la patṛuna! »,  dici: – «All’urtimu mi chiamastivu! Ma puru, datimi  ottu jorna di tempu: facìtimi tṛàsiri ‘nguenti, manciari; e all’ottu jorna, o vivu e bonu, o mortu. » 

Si ‘nchiuj e attenta pi sèntiri chi dicia lu Riuszzu, ca già ‘un si sintia cchiù zoccu dicia: avia Parma ‘mpinta ê labbra. Comu lu senti parpagghiari:: « Ih! è be…ḍḍa la pu.. pa;  cun…siddi… » e vidi la pupa. – « Ah! sciliratu! » dici iḍḍa, « vui l’aviti la papa mia! Lassàti fari a mia, ca ora v’aggiustu io. »

Comu iḍḍa cci senti diri sti palori, accussì iḍḍu arrivinni. – « Vui siti la paturna? »

 – « Io sugnu! » 

Figurativi: turnò ê vivi. Iḍḍa accuminzò a dàricci vrodu ‘nsina ca lu fici risturari. Quannu fu risturatu: 

– « Ora cuntàtimi comu aviti sta pupa? » cci dici la picciotta; e lu Riuzzu cci cuntò tutti cosi. P’accurzari, all’ottu jorna iḍḍu, lu Riuzzu, era bonu. Basta: si dichiararu ca iḍḍu avia a essiri sò maritu e iḍḍa sò mugghieri. Lu Re nisciutu fora dî panni ca sò figghiu avia statu bonu, ha scrittu ‘na pocu di littṛi: una ô Re patṛi d’iḍḍa pi diricci ca s’avia truvatu a sò figghia, ‘n’àutra ô Re ca cci avia fattu stari bona la figghia. Ddocu si junceru tutti sti Rignanti e ficiru li gran festi, e lu Riuzzu si maritò câ Riggineḍḍa; e si guderu la santa paci.

– « V’ha piaciutu, mamma beḍḍa, stu cuntu? » 

– « Sì, figghiu mio »

 – « Ma câ vecchia nun cci aviti a jiri, sapiti! » 

Comu finiu lu cuntu, veni lu cammareri: – « Signura, Signura, lu patṛuni vinni! » 

– « Veru! » dici la signura. Ora senti, pappagaḍḍu: « ora io ti fazzu fari ‘na gàggia nova. » 

 Junci lu patṛuni: grapi tutti li finistṛuna; s’abbrazza câ mogghi. A ura di manciari, lu pappagaḍḍu lu misiru ‘ntô menzu dâ tavula. ‘Ntô megghiu, jetta lu pappagaḍḍu ‘na sbrizziata di vrodu ‘nta l’occhi dû patṛuni. Lu patṛuni, ca si ‘ntisi abbruciari l’occhi, cci detti di manu. Lu pappagaḍḍu l’afferra pî cannarozza, l’affuca e vola.

Vola, e va ‘ntô chianu: – « Pappagaḍḍu sugnu, e omu addiventu! » e si nni turnò beḍḍu asciuttu e pittinatu, omu, ‘ntô Càssaru. 

Scontṛa lu Cavaleri: – « Sapiti! » cci dici lu Cavaleri, « â povira signura cci muriu lu maritu: un pappagaḍḍu l’affucau! » 

– « Veru? mischina! mischina! » dici lu nutaru: se si parteru senza parrari cchiù di scummissa. 

Lu Nutaru appurò ca la signura avai la matṛi e cci iju a ‘ḍḍunnari pi matṛimoniu câ figghia. Si maritaru. La sira cci dissi lu Nutaru â signura: – « Ora, dimmi, cu’ l’ammazzò a tò maritu? » 

– « Un pappagaḍḍu. » 

– « E comu va l’affari di stu pappagaḍḍu? Cuntamilu. » 

La signura cci cuntau tuttu sina ca lu pappagaḍḍu sbrizziau lu vrodu all’ochchi â patṛuni, e poi si nni vulau.

 – « Veru! Veru! » dici lu Nutaru, « ‘Unca lu pappagaḍḍu ‘un era io? »

 – « Vui eravu!… Io restu alluccuta » 

– « Io! E mi fici pappagaḍḍu pi tia! »

Lu ‘nnumani lu Nutaru iju nni lu Cavaleri e si iju a pigghiari li quattṛucent’unzi di scummissa’ e si li guariu cu sò mugghieri.

Iḍḍi arristaru filici e cuntenti,

E nui semu ccà e nni munnamu li denti.

– Agatuzza Messia, Palermo